A recent brush with the sharp end of the financial services industry seems to have encouraged Cobra Beer head Karan Bilimoria â or Lord Bilimoria of Chelsea as he is more properly known â to get back to his roots.

Bilimoria, who received his peerage last week, recently persuaded US hedge fund Och-Ziff to issue him with £25m (€36.5m) of unsecured loan notes as part of a £27.5m fundraising round.

But despite holding a 72% stake in a company valued at about £100m, the entrepreneur clearly has no intention of taking a back seat. Last week he celebrated his elevation to the Lords by handing out free samples of his new double-fermented lager, King Cobra, in a pub in London’s Parsons Green.

We’re told several journalists managed to find time to be on hand to quiz Bilimoria on his flotation plans (mid-2009, apparently) and somewhat later, to tell him he was their best friend.